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Taste.com.au - November 2011
Eat in, eat out, eat well. Look for the taste liftout on Tuesdays in the Herald Sun, Courier Mail and Daily Telegraph, on Wednesdays in the Adelaide Advertiser, and in Perth’s Sunday Times.

Follow these tips and tricks for making and preparing gingerbread dough.

This is the first step in making a gingerbread house.

Roll the dough directly onto baking paper so it's easy to transfer the pieces to baking trays. • Bring dough together after re-rolling leftover dough, and form a rough disc. Wrap in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 10 minutes to rest. This makes rolling out easier.

Run your palm over rolled-out dough to flatten out any lumps.

Use flat baking trays, not warped trays, to make sure your gingerbread is flat.

Grease trays to keep the paper and corners of the pieces flat. Fly-away paper can cause the corners of baked pieces to stick up, meaning the pieces won't fit together when assembling the house.

Check the gingerbread is cooked correctly - golden, but not too brown. Undercooked pieces will be too soft to assemble and overcooked pieces can snap when assembling.

Store cooled pieces, if you're not assembling the house on the same day as baking, between sheets of non-stick baking paper in a large airtight container so they don't go soft.

Freeze cooked pieces for up to 3 months - wrap each piece in plastic then foil. Freeze in an airtight container then thaw before using.